Many environmental stressors, both physical and biological, change across latitudes.  These environmental gradients can be altered by widespread invasive species, especially those that physically alter habitats they invade, such as the common reed, Phragmites australis. A team of Northeastern researchers—including Assistant Professors Randall Hughes, David Kimbro, and Tarik Gouhier, Associate Professor Edward Beighley, post-doctoral researcher Torrance Hanley, graduate students Dongmei Feng and Forest Schenck, and undergraduate student Jeanne Bloomberg—designed a survey to examine factors influencing the success of the invasive common reed across latitudes, and the impact on native inhabitants and coastal ecosystem functioning.

In the study, appearing in the journal Biological Invasions, the research team sampled eight sites along a 10° latitudinal interval to evaluate changes in success of the common reed across latitude.  The researchers collected data on reed density and height, which indicate health of the plant, as well as several indicators of ecosystem functioning including plant and animal species abundance, sediment carbon storage, and primary production.

The results indicated that, contrary to expectations, reed density and abundance increased with higher latitude, and the abundance of associated plants and animals showed a similar pattern. The researchers also found that distance to the open coast and sediment oxygen levels were correlated with the success of the common reed.

This work demonstrates the importance of considering biogeographic information when dealing with invasive species, and highlights the interplay between biological and physical processes in shaping latitudinal gradients which can impact overall ecosystem structure and functioning.